Was contemplating whether to post or not. If anything sounds snarky or something, it was unintended
Yes, I agree to all of that. But at the fundamental, bottom line level, it is still math. Your post helps explain some of the elements in the equation that make it harder for any given individual to lose weight, but losing weight is ultimately calories in vs calories out. Other aspects in the equation would include gender, genetic expression of genes that encode for metabolism, hormonal reactions to stress, possibly what your mother ate while carrying you and what you ate as a toddler,
That is the gist of it, although I don't count calories. It takes me about 2200 (sedentary) to 3000(very active) to gain the weight I need. While some can easily get to that much calories in 1 or 2 meals, I tend to have a harder time. For someone like me, I always try to add an extra apple/orange to my meals (protein shake if I am exercising.) This principle can be applied to people trying to lose weight. But instead of taking away the apple, it would be slowly taking away the snacks, the ready-made/fast-food, or the easily-made foods. That doesn't mean that people trying to lose weight have to give it up though.
The biggest offenders tend to be processed or canned food. So whenever I am buying food, I always look at the back of the label for a few things (Doesn't always apply with fruits, vegetables, and meat, but the portions can be guessed.)
What I tend to look at:
Calories
Vitamins/Minerals...particularly Sodium (there is not an aisle at the supermarket where there are more items that have more potassium than sodium in it,) Potassium
Simple Carbs vs Complex Carbs.
"Regular" fats vs trans-fat(just because it says 0g trans-fat doesn't mean it is 0g.... companies have leeway in that if it is 5g or less, they can say that there is 0g of trans-fat)
There is a whole plethora of things that I can say. Some may think a particular food is "healthy," but I see so much sodium added to the food, it might as well be junk.
A big deal of the American Diet can be absolved by just looking at the label. I'd rather not fix my eating habits after I get diabetes, high blood pressure, or a heart attack.
bad advice to follow fad diets etc. etc.
Fad diets, or what people call diets in general, makes me cringe. Not only that, easy weight gain meal plans also make me cringe.
For most of them, it takes the thinking out of the person trying to lose/gain weight out of the person's hands, and that is the last thing a person should do if he/she wants to sustain losing/gaining weight.